Reaching On Errors
Posted by Raphy on August 6, 2009
Earlier today Andy was telling me about Derek Jeter's uncanny ability to reach base via an error. Although I foolishly did not believe him at the time, Jeter's lead in this category among active players is significant. Here are the leaders in games with at least 1 ROE since 1996 when Jeter began his career. (EDIT I of course forgot that Jeter did get a few ABs in '95)
Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Derek Jeter 152 Ind. Games Johnny Damon 113 Ind. Games Alex Rodriguez 111 Ind. Games Jason Kendall 107 Ind. Games Craig Biggio 107 Ind. Games Edgar Renteria 105 Ind. Games Kenny Lofton 97 Ind. Games Luis Castillo 94 Ind. Games Miguel Tejada 93 Ind. Games Ray Durham 93 Ind. Games
Judging from the top three, I suspect we have stumbled upon Brian Cashman's secret plan for building a team.
Here are the leaders since 1954. Jeter is tied for 16th overall.
+-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Pete Rose 205 Ind. Games Luis Aparicio 191 Ind. Games Hank Aaron 186 Ind. Games Robin Yount 181 Ind. Games Bert Campaneris 170 Ind. Games Roberto Clemente 169 Ind. Games Craig Biggio 169 Ind. Games Vada Pinson 168 Ind. Games Al Kaline 167 Ind. Games Cal Ripken 164 Ind. Games Frank Robinson 162 Ind. Games Rickey Henderson 159 Ind. Games Lou Brock 158 Ind. Games Brooks Robinson 153 Ind. Games Andre Dawson 153 Ind. Games Paul Molitor 152 Ind. Games Derek Jeter 152 Ind. Games Rod Carew 150 Ind. Games Dave Winfield 148 Ind. Games Tony Perez 147 Ind. Games
August 6th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
I wonder what explains Jeter's stat. Could be he hits balls hard enough for close plays that the hometown scorer calls errors. Or people rush to throw him out, which wouldn't make much sense, there are faster players--unless fielders get the benefit of the doubt if the player is too fast, in which case Jeter might have just the right speed. Or, most likely, it could be a fluke.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
He's right-handed, fast, and hits a lot of groundballs. It's not a fluke.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Is this the right way to measure this? How different is the list if you do ROE/PA?
August 7th, 2009 at 8:22 am
Maybe a better way to measure it is ROE/BIP?
August 7th, 2009 at 8:33 am
There seem to be 2 seperate measurable factors
How about splitting it up -
GB/PA and ROE(on GB)/GB (I'm assuming ROE on fly balls is an entirely different animal)
Jeter: 3783/9413 = .402, 140/3783 = .037
I don't have time to do the rest now, but the info can be found on players' splits page
August 7th, 2009 at 11:59 am
The only human factor I can think of is that a player who runs hard to first more often will be safe on a close play. If a throw is late because of a bobble or a bounce, the runner who runs harder has more of a chance to be safe.
Jeter's ROE/PA is 1.59%. Those on the list provided above with %s higher than that are: Campaneris 1.77%, Aparicio 1.70%, Clemente 1.65% and Pinson 1.61%. No one else on that list comes in higher than 1.48%.
Considering we're talking about 9500+ PAs for all these players, players with 1.6% or higher are not there by chance (excuse the pun).